The Legend
Raised in the Red Hills of the Oklahoma Badlands, Maria Rae was cook, nurse, and confidant to the rough and reaqdy desperados, tin horn gamblers, thieves, whiskey sellers, and soiled doves who sought refuge in the “Land of the Six-Gun”.
During the great land run of 1893, Maria Rae staked her claim at the exact spot where her horse “Slim” ran out of gas. She set up a kitchen, posting a simple sign hung upside down and backwards by an itinerant Australian workman that should have read “DINE” but instead declared “ENID”.
As her fame spread throughout the west, “Maria Rae’s” became a palace of palate pleasin’ delights for fortune hunters and land grabbers. Theses and other road weary pilgrims of the plains found solace in the wholesome meals served from Maria Rae’s back porch, where beggars rubbed elbows with bankers.
Tragedy struck during the harsh winter of 1912. Crowds huddled together in the tiny kitchen during a devastating ice storm. Some said it was the chili, others claimed it was a senators political balderdash, but the sad truth is, “Maria Rae’s” burned to the ground. An orphan of the storm, Maria Rae salvaged all that remained from that raging inferno, a charred recipe box.
Today, that same pioneer spirit lives on. Maria Rae’s legacy is carried on by her only known descendent. Taking the name of her spirited great-grandmother, Maria Rae lives and labors in Enid, Oklahoma, making the same great foods that survived the fired and aided in the taming of the Cherokee Strip.
And sometimes, if you’re lucky, when the moon is full, the light is just right, and the prairie wind is still, you’ll see Maria Rae and Slim offering solace and comfort to the ghostly travelers making their run for heavenly glory.